Technology geared toward minimization of the effects of impacts on vehicles attempts to absorb and dissipate the energy of an impact through reinforcement structures or assemblies capable of displacing the kinetic force of impact and converting it into work or heat energy. Some methods include adding heavy reinforcement materials to the vehicle structure, which are designed to absorb impact energy.
Impact events transfer varying amounts of energy into different parts of the vehicle structure. Furthermore, impact events often introduce forces along multiple axes and may introduce torsional forces to reinforcement structures. Reinforcement structures may be geared toward resisting the most-probable impact vectors, but may also be capable of dissipating some energy from forces along other vectors.